1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system for causing an image forming apparatus to execute a job transmitted from a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone, to an image forming apparatus for use in such a system, and to an image forming processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The printer, one type of image forming apparatuses, recently has been increasingly used in such a manner as to be shared by a plurality of users through a network.
Due to widespread use of mobile terminals such as mobile phones, there has been a growing demand for transmitting print data from a mobile phone to a printer through a network so as to perform printing.
However, to give instructions from the mobile terminal to the printer through the network, the network address of the printer needs to be inputted into the mobile terminal. Manually inputting such a network address is a bothersome operation.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-207658 discloses a print system such that, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) including information to be printed is specified for a printer so that the printer accesses the specified URL to obtain and print the information to be printed.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-318886 discloses a system such that a content server, which has received from an information providing server an assigned QR code corresponding to detailed information, prints this QR code onto a magazine or the like, and a user who has purchased this magazine transmits the QR code read by a QR code reader to the information providing server through the printer, whereby information corresponding to the QR code is transmitted from the information providing server to the printer and then is printed by the printer.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-227247 discloses a printing apparatus that scans a handout provided with a QR code to download an image, extracts index data by seeking the QR code from the downloaded image and analyzing this QR code, and searches a database based on this index data so as to acquire and print image data corresponding to the handout.
The technologies disclosed in the documents described above do not achieve printing by transmitting print data from a mobile terminal to a printer; therefore, they have failed to provide a solution to meet a demand for achieving a system capable of eliminating burden of inputting the address of the printer and also capable of, through simple operation, providing instructions from the mobile terminal to an image forming apparatus for performing printing and the like.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.